"Beneath the Wall, the treasure is shining. Everyone wants it, I know everyone wants it. I want it, he wants it, you want it. I know, oh oh oh~~~"
A plump and wobbling clown staggered out of the swaying cabin. His face was wide and swollen, and his bald head gleamed under the light. His cheeks and scalp were covered with red and green checkered tattoos.
It looked like his skin was the floor of a latrine, and workers had tiled it with alternating red and green ceramic squares.
If there had been a Valyrian here, they would have recognized at a glance that the tattoo pattern marked him as a slave jester.
Perhaps on any other day, anyone who saw his flamboyant clothes and bizarre tattooed face would laugh at him as a fool.
But at this moment, Patchface still wore his exaggerated greasy clown expression, still stumbled about in his comical way, still sang his nonsensical songs. Yet his eyes glimmered with golden light, and an overwhelming aura radiated from him that made it hard to breathe.
"Patchface, why are you here? My lord Count, why did you bring Patchface aboard?" Ulma asked in shock.
"He wasn't here before. This ship is a warship, and jesters are not permitted aboard." Count Alexander stared warily at the fool, swinging his dragon-tooth blade in warning as he shouted, "Hey, clown, why are your eyes glowing? Have you become a wight?
Stand still. Do not move, or I will cut your fat head in half."
"Oh oh oh, beneath the Wall, the wind is rising. I have been waiting for the wind and now it has come! Riding the wind, the ship sails far away, oh oh oh, I know, I know, it is time to seek the treasure!"
Patchface flailed his arms and twisted his fat body, dancing and singing like no one else existed.
"Hey, clown, I asked you a question—boom—crash—"
Count Alexander had taken two steps toward him and shouted again, when suddenly a five-meter wall of water surged from behind and crashed down onto the deck like a mountain.
The twenty-meter-long ship flipped end over end in the churning waves like a surfer dragged helplessly into a breaker.
Count Alexander, Ulma, Patchface, and every sailor aboard plunged into the freezing sea.
Strangely, although seventeen or eighteen longboats floated nearby, the wave struck only Alexander's vessel.
Yes, a tsunami rising from the deep sea toppled just that one ship.
"Beneath the Wall, the treasure is shining. I am coming, he is coming, you are coming. We all want it, I know, I know, oh oh oh~~~"
When Ulma finally broke the surface again, gasping, he heard Patchface's jubilant voice rising and falling with the waves, drifting rapidly toward the collapsing Wall.
"By the Seven, that is a monster!"
As the enormous wave approached the ice ahead, Ulma glimpsed through the eerie green flames of wildfire that Patchface was stepping atop the water.
He looked as though he were riding the wave itself.
The surging swell shattered the newly forming ice and dragged wights into the sea, while freeing the ship trapped in the frozen surface.
Fourteen remaining Night's Watch warships seized the opportunity to flee the coast.
"Help!" Soon after, the old ranger heard Count Alexander and the sailors crying out for rescue.
"Help!" He added his own shout.
With the storm raging and chaos all around, if he did not scream loudly, the rescue boats would likely miss him.
After a long struggle, the sixty-year-old Night's Watchman was hauled aboard with a hook for the second time.
"Leave here. Leave at once! I have a terrible feeling. Something even worse will happen in Eastwatch soon," Ulma urged urgently, wrapped in a thick blanket.
"We are already making full speed away from the dock at Eastwatch," a knight replied in a low voice.
Even without the ranger's warning, the rapidly spreading ice had already forced every crew to escape as quickly as they could.
"Do not sail into deep water. Stay close to the coast and head south," Count Alexander instructed.
"Yes, my lord," the knight answered and began turning the rudder.
"That wave must have been Patchface's doing," Ulma muttered grimly beside the furnace.
"He is Stannis Baratheon's jester. How could he be responsible?" the count asked, confused.
"I saw him standing on the waves, as if he were commanding the sea like a god."
"You must be seeing things. He is just a clown, known across the Seven Kingdoms," Alexander said, shaking his head.
"You have heard of him, then do you know where Patchface came from?" Ulma asked quietly.
Stannis grew up joyless and seldom smiled, and his parents rarely saw him laugh.
When his father, Steffon Baratheon, traveled to Valantis on the Mad King's orders to find a bride of ancient noble blood for Prince Rhaegar, he discovered the clever Patchface and bought him, hoping the fool would bring joy to Storm's End.
Thirteen-year-old Stannis and his brother Robert were waiting on Dragonstone to welcome their returning parents. The couple had already seen their sons on the pier and were waving, smiling at them from the ship's deck, when disaster struck without warning.
Under a clear sky, a violent storm suddenly rose on the sea.
Erlu watched helplessly as his parents died amid the waves.
Such a dramatic accident was far too shocking. From that day on, Erlu never smiled again, and he began to hate the Seven Gods who had cruelly taken his parents from him.
Well, to be fair, the Seven Gods made of seven pieces of wood were certainly innocent at the time.
But when Westerners curse the unfairness of fate, they definitely curse God rather than the Jade Emperor. By the same logic, Sun Wukong would only shout, "I want all the gods and Buddhas filling the heavens to vanish into smoke," and would never say to the Tathagata, "I want God and Allah to XXX." That would make no sense, and even the Tathagata would be left dumbfounded hearing it.
Erlu's entire family believed in the Seven Gods. After suffering such a tragedy, of course they would hate the Seven Gods.
In that accident, more than a hundred sailors, along with the duke and duchess, all died.
Only Patchface soaked on the seabed for three days and three nights. His skin was clammy and icy, his breathing completely gone. Just before being buried, he suddenly coughed up a pool of water and came back to life.
"Everyone says he went to the palace of the Drowned God and learned how to breathe underwater under the guidance of mermaids," Ulmer said in a mysterious tone.
Count Alexander was skeptical and asked, "The entire Stannis family went to Winterfell. Why did this fool stay behind at Eastwatch?"
"At the time, Queen Selyse left Eastwatch with Commander Jon, ah, with Duke Stark. Patchface suddenly went missing, and Princess Shireen cried until she was frantic.
"Time waits for no one. Tens of thousands of troops would not delay their march for a single fool.
"Three days after Princess Shireen left, Patchface was discovered by villagers in an abandoned cellar in a neighboring fishing village.
"That clown fell into the cellar and couldn't climb out. His head was too stupid, and he didn't know how to call for help. If a farmer hadn't heard him singing, he probably would have starved to death long ago."
At this point, Ulmer could not help showing a suspicious expression. "Too much of a coincidence. Maybe that clown never wanted to leave at all. He said there were treasures beneath the Wall."
"You've lived by the Wall for decades. Do you know of any treasures beneath it?"
"Apart from ice and mud, even rats are hard to find," Ulmer said with a frown.
"Exactly," Count Alexander spread his hands. "Patchface is a fool. Whoever believes the words that come out of his mouth is a fool too."
"But…""Hoo, hoo, hoo…"
"Hoo, hoo, hoo…" The longship suddenly began to rock violently. The furious howling of the wind pierced through the thick wooden walls of the cabin. It was like the roar of a god in one's ears, deafening and soul-stirring.
Ulmer braced himself against the bulkhead, struggling to keep his balance amid the violent jolting.
"There's the massive island of Skagos blocking the waters outside Seal Bay. It's usually very calm," he said in confusion.
"Ahhh! A tornado! The storm is heading for Eastwatch!" a sailor screamed in terror from the deck outside.
Ulmer and Count Alexander, filled with doubt, staggered toward the cabin door.
Without even asking, they immediately saw the tornado the oarsman had shouted about.
On the sea to the northeast, a gigantic column of wind rose, connecting sky and sea. It advanced toward the collapsed section of the Wall near Eastwatch, sometimes slow, sometimes fast.
"Drowned God above, the waters around Skane are already dangerous enough. I've lived for over forty years and never seen such a massive tornado. It even seems to be tearing apart the storm clouds in the sky," Count Alexander shouted against the gale, swallowing hard.
"Row, hurry, put your backs into it! Get out of here! The warship 'Dragon King's Wing' has been swept into the sky!" a sailor cried out in terror.
More than a dozen longships were sailing south across the sea. Naturally, some were faster and some slower, some in front and some behind.
The tornado moved far too quickly. The last longship failed to evade it and was swept in like a willow leaf, utterly powerless.
But that was no willow leaf. It was a massive ship twenty meters long.
The sky grew dim, snowflakes drifted down, and visibility was limited.
Soon, the tornado came ashore and raced inland along the Wall. The thunderous roar still echoed in their ears, but its immense form gradually vanished beneath the darkened sky.
"Buzz…" In the next moment, a humming sound like that of a swarm of bees came from the heavens. The low, heavy leaden clouds were torn apart, scattering a thread of murky yellow sunlight.
"Seven Gods above. First the snow and ice fog brought by the White Walkers, then the tsunami and storm, and now even the sun is out. What on earth is going on?" Ulmer said in a daze.
"It seems… it's noon now," Count Alexander murmured. "Beyond the Wall, the sky is so dim that daytime feels like night, and nights are even darker. I've almost lost all sense of time."
"I haven't seen the sun in ages! But this sun is so dim," a sailor rowing hard on deck shouted in confusion.
"Caw, caw, caw…" By the faint, murky yellow sunlight, everyone saw a huge flock of ravens, like a patch of dark cloud, flying in from the northwest.
The snow continued to fall.
Waves crashed again and again against the collapsed Wall lying by the sea.
The tornado moved along the mountain-like remains of the Wall.
A shallow pool of sunlight, like a stage spotlight, shone down upon the ruins of the Wall.
Three thousand ravens passed back and forth between the tornado and the pillar of light, never straying far from the tilting Wall.
Just as Ulmer and the others stood there in bewilderment, they saw another star, radiating a blue-green glow, slowly rising from beneath the dark earth.
The cyan light was faint, yet with a single glance one could feel a presence that was holy, vast, majestic, and sacred.
Ulmer, who believed in the Seven Gods, dropped to his knees with a thud, as if facing the Holy Father incarnate.
The count of the Sisters, who believed in the Drowned God, felt as though the Drowned God himself had descended. He too knelt on the deck.
After that, there were sea folk who believed in the Storm God and northerners who believed in the Old Gods. When they saw the cyan star, all of them felt as though they were beholding the god in their own hearts.
Their minds trembled, beyond their control.
(End of chapter)
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